Category Archives: UTOPIA

Further UTOPIA Installation Details

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I just spoke with someone who’s considering getting UTOPIA installed in Orem (yes, the salespeople are apparently out in force) and got some details about what to expect on install costs under the UIA model. The cost of installation is $3,000 which is available to both new and current subscribers. If you pay up-front, you get a $250 discount and it will drop the monthly cost somewhere in the $25 range. There are also options to finance the install over either a 10-year or 20-year period. The 10-year period requires $300 up-front and about $30 per month whereas the 20-year period is no up-front cost and around $25 per month.

The real trick with the install costs is to do a quick run-down of what you’ll be paying in the long term. Assuming a savings of $25 per month, the up-front payment for installation will pay itself back in just over nine years. Under all plans, the cost of installation will eventually go away, but Qwest and Comcast will still be charging you for that “free” installation. Odds are pretty good you’ll be subscribed to Internet service for the next two decades (and if you don’t think you will be, why are you reading this?) and there are multiple choices for service if for some reason one of the providers cheese you off, so I don’t think there should be a lot of concern about not using the infrastructure you paid for.

If you live in a UTOPIA member city and want service, make it easy on the sales guys and let them know ahead of time that you’re interested.

Exclusive: Payson Not Showing at UTOPIA Board Meetings

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For quite some time now, Payson has seemed to be afflicted with a huge case of buyer’s remorse about UTOPIA. Back in 2008, they opted to not participate in the new round of bonding and later punted on joining the UIA. (Who knows if they’ll even come up with the matching funds to participate in the federal stimulus either.) The biggest shocker, though, comes from a review of UTOPIA board minutes. A review of these shows that Payson’s UTOPIA board member hasn’t been showing up to many of the meetings, even when one was held in Payson at what I can imagine was great inconvenience to the members of the other cities.

My review of the minutes shows that in 2009, Payson did not attend nine of the monthly board meetings. In 2010, eight meetings were missed. Neither of the 2011 board meetings with available minutes show that Payson was in attendance, and I’m willing to bet that the others that I don’t have minutes for would show a similar pattern. Making it to just five meetings in over two years is abysmal, especially when there’s the option to participate via phone.

Given the large amount of stranded investment in the city and Payson’s large financial commitments to the network, this seems like a total abdication of their responsibility to city taxpayers. Shouldn’t they be making an effort to get the network covering both operational costs and debt service? Wouldn’t it be prudent to set aside money for participating in the UIA, money that is guaranteed to be paid back by subscribers and utilize infrastructure already in the ground? Why would Payson do an ostrich impersonation in the face of the harsh fiscal realities?

If I were a resident of Payson, I’d be out for blood. Contact Councilman Brad Daley and let him know that if he’s going to be on the board, he has a responsibility to show up to meetings and do the people’s work, especially since he voted for UTOPIA in the first place. If he won’t do it, it’s time to pressure Mayor Rick Moore to find someone who will.

UTOPIA’s Five-Year Plan

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I had the chance to visit with Gary Jones, UTOPIA’s new sales and marketing guy, Julie Paulson, the new PR flack, and Kirt Sudweeks, the CFO, to get some updates on how things are going to be playing out this building season. I got a pretty good rundown of where they’re going, and I think the plan is good enough to work.

The network currently has about 9,000 subscribers out of 56,000 marketable addresses. The plan calls for adding on 5,000 new subscribers each of the next five years. Under the UIA model, this would cover all operating expenses of the new subscribers and the operating expenses of the existing subscribers while potentially providing a small offset of the current pledges (though significant offsets aren’t scheduled until 2015). Existing subscribers will be given the chance to participate in the UIA model, either to buy their connection outright or finance it over 20 years, either of which will eliminate the built-in network construction costs from the old model. This would also provide a significant influx of cash to UTOPIA to help with construction. There’s also a lot going into identifying potential subscribers in areas with the network in the ground that aren’t currently signed up.

Those of you living in cities that chose to participate in the UIA will be able to sign up under the new model, but the ability of UTOPIA to build depends on group participation and proximity to existing network. If you’re next to one of the anchor institutions being wired with stimulus money, it’ll be easier to hook you up. That, in turn, makes adjacent neighborhoods easier to hook up, and so on. If you live in a small pocket without service available, talk to your neighbors and get that interest registered on UTOPIA’s website.

Now allow me to inject some reality in here. I think UTOPIA’s plan is doable. Adding 5,000 new subscribers a year, if split between new construction and existing areas, would run under 10% marketshare per year. UTOPIA can conceivably hit 35-40% of the markets they serve as iProvo did. If you’re like me and want UTOPIA to succeed and really REALLY want to get service, you’d better be prepared to work. I keep on saying it, but it bears repeating: you’re in the driver’s seat. Don’t sit back and wait for service to come to you, be the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

If the expansion is citizen-driven and UTOPIA properly executes on the plan (which has been a sore point before), it’ll only be a few years before there’s money to pay the bonds. I have better confidence this time around because unlike Brigham City, the money is already approved and waiting for construction. (Seriously, getting the bonds passed and figuring out what to do in the areas with lower take rates cost at lest 3-4 months.) Now get out there and do your part to make this thing work.

On the UTOPIA Lawsuits and City Responsibility

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I’ve been delaying writing more about this because I’ve been in the process of talking to people and gathering more information about the legal fight between Chris Hogan and UTOPIA. If you’d like to review the source material yourself, check out both UTOPIA’s filing and Hogan’s filing for yourself. Personally, it looks like a lot of “he said, she said” material. Hogan’s complaint centers around nepotism and violation of state bidding processes while UTOPIA has fired back to say that Hogan made a power play for the Executive Director’s chair using blackmail. Yeah, it’s all pretty nasty stuff, and it’s affecting people I like on both sides.

I think some of this may be a clash of management style. I’ve watched Todd Marriott operate and he’s what I would call a “vision guy”. Other “vision guys” are folks like Murray Mayor Dan Snarr and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan. I think the world of Mayor Snarr, but Mayor Dolan I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, and it comes down to the way they execute on their vision. Snarr’s approach has always been to sell you on the vision whereas Dolan focuses on making the vision happen whether you wanted to be along for the ride or not. I think Marriott can oscillate between those approaches sometimes, and that may not sit well.

Marriott also fits into what I’d call an “action guy”, someone who wants to get things done and knows just how he wants to do it. This in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, but being a government entity, there’s a complex web of rules that have to be followed with darn near every action. I’m sure that UTOPIA’s counsel is good at finding ways to accomplish these goals within the framework of state law, but I’m also certain that it ends up in unfamiliar territory and pushes the boundaries, things that have often gotten local governments in hot water with the Legislature (like Salt Lake County and the now-infamous police fee). Creativity in government, rather than being rewarded, often gets punished and can appear to be flagrant rule-breaking.

I’ve heard and read a lot of negative things flying back-and-forth and at the very least, the acrimony that has built up is some cause for concern. It would also be concerning if even a fraction of the allegations by either party is true. In all of this, I have to ask what the board is doing to avoid and circumvent these issues in the future. They certainly can’t micro-manage the people they select to captain the ship, but they absolutely need to stay on top of what’s happening and guard the public trust. I’m glad that the board has been more involved in recent years than at the beginning, but I still don’t feel as if the cities are properly invested in UTOPIA and its success.

On the surface, I can understand why. UTOPIA has spent a lot of money without much to show for it so far. (Seriously, $200M+ for <10K subscribers is not the best return on investment.) If I were in an elected position, it would be very tempting to keep things limping along until I can pass the buck to the next guy, especially if I don’t really understand the telecom market or the underlying technology. This, however, really needs to end. The cities need to be fully invested in more than just their pocketbooks. If there isn’t someone in city government, elected or appointed, who can really understand the project and help guide it, the cities should put out a call to find someone who is that they can appoint to the board.

Right now, I’m taking a “wait and see” approach. The UIA plan is good, I just worry about the execution after Brigham City took so much longer than expected to get moving. If it succeeds and UTOPIA’s finances see a drastic improvement, then whatever Marriott and his team are doing is probably going to be okay with me.  If it flops out or fizzles and we have another case of missed deadlines, it’s time for increased scrutiny. The project and its goals are more important to me than any individual involved in it, and it should be that way for all of us who support open-access networks.

I’m going to start doing my part by making an effort to be at UTOPIA’s monthly board meetings to keep an eye on things. The next one is Monday May 9th at 9:30AM in UTOPIA’s offices at Redwood and the 21st S Freeway. I hope that some of you other private citizens will do your part as well.

Confirmed: Infowest to Provide Residential Service

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I’ve had it confirmed that Infowest, currently a commercial provider, will be participating on UTOPIA as a residential provider as part of the new UIA expansion push. Given that Prime Time, Connected Lyfe, and Fuzecore have all had to bow out for one reason or another, it’s good to know that there will be more options for residential customers who join the network in the future. I’m pretty sure they’ll offer voice and data, but no word on video options.

If you have any experience with Infowest, leave it in the comments.

Connected Lyfe, Disconnected

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Word on the street is that the plug is being pulled on Connected Lyfe (or Lyfe Communications, or whatever company name they go by now). Several sources have confirmed that the video head end they purchased from UTOPIA has been returned as they are no longer able to make the payments. I’ve also heard that, unsurprisingly, most of their difficultly came from an inability to negotiate needed video licenses from programmers to roll out their ambitious video product.

I can’t say I’m too surprised. Technologically speaking, they had all the right ingredients. Most of the guys who founded Connected Lyfe had been working for Move Networks, a company that made some impressive video streaming products that could dynamically adjust the video bitrate depending on current bandwidth conditions without a bunch of annoying buffering. Where they went wrong, however, was thinking that programmers would line up to stream their shows to any and all screens they could support. I mean, the networks literally own Hulu and even they can’t get too disruptive. Combined with the rapid burn of investor cash, I couldn’t see this one going much of anywhere.

I hear, though, that UTOPIA is working on some stringent new requirements for new providers so that these kinds of things start happening. I understand they’ve been in the works for a few months and still aren’t finalized, but hopefully we’ve seen an end of shining star new providers that flame out.

UTOPIA Sued: Is there really a story here?

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The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Chris Hogan, one of UTOPIA’s former execs, has filed a suit against the agency over violations of his employment contract. The suit alleges that consulting firm TetraTech was awarded an improper contract for network construction because Executive Director Todd Marriott’s brother is a manger there. The suit also alleges that Hogan’s replacement, Gary Jones, is Marriott’s neighbor. Now I’ve got friends on both sides of this, so this is where I tread very, very lightly.

I can’t speak to Mr. Jones’ qualifications, but I do know that UTOPIA has done plenty of business with TetraTech in the past. They are also a very large multi-national corporation with offices across the world, including two here in Salt Lake County. Even with the blood relationship between the Marriotts, I don’t see that this would necessarily disqualify TetraTech from being a candidate, especially if the work they did in the past was up-to-par.

UTOPIA has also told me that Hogan’s contract was up for renewal and they opted to not renew it. Obviously, I don’t have any details beyond that, but the timing does seem to coincide with my recollection of when he was brought on. Assuming an annual contract, the timing would likely fit.

The Tribune, however, doesn’t dive into any of this background to provide essential context here. I also noticed that they did not include any statements from UTOPIA to provide balance to the story, though I imagine with pending litigation, they can’t really say too much anyway. This is the far too common behavior I’ve come to expect from Utah’s major media outlets when it comes to UTOPIA. They present very one-sided stories and practically cheerlead for UTOPIA’s failure from the editorial pages. There are two sides to every story, but outlets like the Tribune and Deseret “News” are only concerned with the doom-and-gloom side that moves papers.

UTOPIA Starts Construction Season

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After many, many months of inaction, UTOPIA is finally starting to move some more fiber into the ground starting with Centerville. This is the start of wiring up anchor institutions using the federal broadband grants, money that should touch most member cities. It won’t get the fiber all the way to your house, but it will wire schools, hospitals, libraries, and other government buildings which will make hooking up neighborhoods much easier and cheaper.

So what do you need to do to get service when it rolls by near you? Go to UTOPIA’s website and register your interest. They will be using those registrations to identify places to market to. If your city is part of the UIA, you’ll be able to get the install cost rolled into your monthly fees. If your city is not part of the UIA or is not a UTOPIA member city, you need to go talk to your city council to get that fixed.

Fuzecore leaves UTOPIA, Xmission steps in

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I’ve received final word that Fuzecore has decided to leave UTOPIA and has sent its customers over to Xmission. Part of the problem for the Idaho-based provider is that there just weren’t enough customers available on the network to make things work, the same problem Prime Time Communications found itself in. Xmission has graciously provided those customers with a month of free service during the transition and will honor all existing pricing arrangements, though in some cases customers have been bumped up to a higher speed at no extra charge. I applaud Fuzecore for making sure its customers are well-served on the way out the door and leaving with class. Tim McClanahan has always been open with me about what they’re up to and how they’re doing and I’m sure he’ll continue to do well back in Idaho.

Personally, I don’t think the network can sustain a large selection of providers in its current state. The slices of pie get just a bit too thin to make things work, especially with such a large service area to cover. I’m expecting the provider market to pare down to Xmission, Veracity, Brigham.net (though in a limited footprint in Brigham City) and a handful of commercial-only providers. Nuvont has been slowly dying for some time now and is rumored to be down to a scant two employees running the company. I’ve been watching ConnectedLyfe’s filings with the SEC and they continue to bleed cash on an ambitious plan to stream video that I honestly don’t think content companies are ready to embrace. Their last SEC filing in November shows $84K in revenues with $1.2M in losses. Unless there’s an investor with deep pockets or some major breakthrough with a major content company, they are not long for this world.

Honestly, I don’t think all of this is necessarily a bad thing. I’d rather have a handful of excellent and profitable providers than dozens of them waiting to see who dies first. If UTOPIA can get the network construction rolling again (seriously, guys, this is taking forever), maybe some of them will come back and give it another go. For right now, this is probably what’s best for all involved.

A Better Way to Find UTOPIA Coverage

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One of the long-standing complaints with UTOPIA has been a lack of data and, to be honest, it’s a fair criticism (and one I share). At the top of the list is trying to figure out just where the heck service is actually available. Thanks to the Utah Broadband Project, we now know. Just select UTOPIA from the list of providers and you’ll know which census blocks the service is actually available on. Naturally, it doesn’t mean that every house has an existing connection, but it gives you a much better idea than just “somewhere in the city”.